Joyride to joystick: Atari controller custom-built from car seat adjuster

[wraggster]

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/06/seat-controller.jpg (http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/22/custom-atari-car-seat-joystick/)So you've survived the robot revolution and you're waiting for either a full-blown apocalypse (http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/05/darpas-robotic-cheetah-sets-a-land-speed-record/), or Mr. Anderson. But how are you going to kill time when our new masters are eating controller PCBs for breakfast? With a steampunk (http://www.engadget.com/tag/steampunk) joystick, of course. Jason Torchinsky (http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/22/free-concert-in-la-this-weekend-bring-your-apple-ii/) from Jalopnik has done just that, making an Atari 2600 controller by repurposing a power seat control switch panel from a 1980s Oldsmobile. It's no Avenger Controller Elite (http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/31/n-control-avenger-controller-elite-reaches-gamestop/), but it certainly does the job, and due to a standardized wiring layout it's functional on other hardware of the same era (http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/01/atari-pong-review/). And for all you MAME (http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/02/mame-gets-chrome-native-client-port-is-awesome-case-study/) heroes, Jason says it would be no more complicated to hook it up to a PC or Mac using a USB keyboard encoder. Follow the source link for a neat walkthrough of the project and jump over the break to see a video of the seat switch in action, shot in the mancave of yesteryear.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/22/custom-atari-car-seat-joystick/